Steamed noodles or instant noodles are produced in large amounts at high speeds. In a method of producing steamed noodles or instant noodles, generally, raw materials such as flour, buckwheat flour and starch are added, kneading water (prepared by dissolving salt, brine, thickening polysaccharides, etc.) is supplied, and kneading is performed to prepare a noodle paste known as a dough. Also, the prepared noodle paste (dough) is aged, prepared into a noodle sheet by a rolling mill, and then compounded. The noodle sheet after composition is rolled by a plurality of rolling mills, and the noodle sheet after rolling is cut out by a cutting blade roll, laminated on a conveyer, and transported.
Then, the bunch of noodle strings laminated on the conveyer passes through a tunnel type of steaming device to be steamed while being transported. The bunch of noodle strings after steaming is called steamed noodles. The steamed noodles are wrapped and distributed in a market. Further, the steamed noodles are subjected to seasoning or the like, and then moved to a drying process in which the steamed noodles are dried with oil heat or hot air, resulting in the instant noodle mass.
Here, in the process of steaming the raw noodles, a large amount of bunch of noodle strings may often be continuously processed using a tunnel type of steamer. In this process, a large amount of steam is necessary since it is necessary to steam bunch of noodle strings continuously at a high speed. Further, when the steam is insufficient in this steaming process, the steamed noodles themselves may taste undercooked. Further, even when the instant noodle mass is then completed by oil heat drying and hot air drying, the so-called undercooked taste remains when the instant noodle mass is cooked by pouring hot water and eaten. Thus, the steaming process has been a very important process in producing the steamed noodles or the instant noodles.
Therefore, an amount of steam used has been large, and much energy has been consumed in generation of this steam. Therefore, in the present steaming process, if the amount of used steam can be reduced by further increasing steaming efficiency and the energy can be used more efficiently, this can reduce a production cost and can be more friendly to the environment.
Generally, various prior application technologies are disclosed as methods of increasing steaming efficiency of noodles or the like in a tunnel type of steaming device. For example, the technologies include Patent Literatures 1 and 2 below.